Demand an apology for the women of Sultan Fatih Mosque Mayfield!

‘Prophet Muhammad looked into hell and saw there were many more women than men there. So he urged women to donate three times as much money in charity to save themselves from the hellfire’ this was the misogynistic comment made by Shaikh Muhamed Hamed to conclude his Eid sermon on Friday 15th June.

Any suggestion the less financially secure half of the population should pay triple the amount of charity is ludicrous. His misogynistic cherry picking of the Hadith is appalling. Shaikh Muhamed Hamed completely ignored other Hadith which state there are more women in heaven, as well as the explanation behind these Hadiths: historically women have comprised the majority of the world’s population.

During the sermon he also relayed a story about a woman who spent a huge amount of time sewing a beautiful dress and then undid all her work by yanking on a thread and pulling the whole thing undone. Those clumsy careless women! Don’t be like them! Was the point of the story.

There was no effort made in his sermon to uplift women in our community, to recognise the efforts made by women to serve their community or to acknowledge anything positive about us at all. The sermon was nothing short of women bashing. It was humiliating, disempowering and offensive to all women present. It also undermined previous efforts by members of the community to uplift women’s standing in the community and counter domestic violence.

Fair and respectful treatment of women in the Mayfield Muslim community was severely undermined by the damaging actions of a previous Imam, Riaz Tasawar, who infamously performed the marriage ceremony of a 12-year-old girl in 2013.

This misogynistic speech by Shaikh Muhamed Hamed is another step away from the equal and respectful treatment women in our community deserve.

These women-hating comments cast a shadow over what wassupposed to be one of the most joyful days in the Muslim calendar.

The debate about women’s safety on the streets of Melbourne, following the death of Eurydice Dixon on a soccer pitch in Carlton North and the possible link with another sexual assault nearby, also the recent sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in Adamstown Heights are pertinent reminders of where misogyny ends and why it needs to be vigorously fought against.